In the spring of 2005, Loyola Chicago officially started "getting messed with" when Susan Messing became the improvisation professor for the theatre department. Before coming to Loyola, the only opportunity many had to become students of Messing's was by taking classes with her at either of Chicago's two premiere improv theaters: The Annoyance or iO. The Northwestern University-educated Messing brings with her more than 15 years of improv performance experience and training from her beginnings with MetraForm (a young Annoyance) all the way to the Main Stage of The Second City.

She is not just a stage actor either; she has been taking roles in major motion pictures recently as well. She can be seen alongside Jennifer Aniston in the recent film "The Break Up" as well as in Bob Odenkirk's latest release, "Let's Go to Prison," where she plays a stripper in a head brace. Few colleges or universities in Chicago push the rich history of improv that has been cultivated on stages around the city, including The Second City, iO and The Annoyance.

Since Messing has become a staple on each one of those stages, she makes for the perfect candidate to usher in a new generation of improv teaching. Taking the knowledge gained over her years in those institutions and bringing it to the university level, she has not only found success at Loyola but has recently taken over teaching the third- and fourth-year theater students at DePaul as well. Despite all of her additional classes, Messing still finds time to perform in the city.

You can catch her every Thursday at The Annoyance Theatre in her show, "Messing With a Friend." Each week, Messing brings another of her "friends" onto the stage with her to get "messed with" for 40 minutes. Messing's friends in the past have included Chicago improv staples such as Mick Napier, TJ Jagadowski, Joe Canale and well-known comedians such as Andy Dick and MadTV's Ike Barrenholtz.

The Phoenix had the chance to sit down and talk with Messing about what she had accomplished thus far in her career and about what it has been like having to adjust to teaching at a university level. Phoenix: What was life like for you as an actor in college? Messing: I was always getting cast, but I was a "bad actor.

" They'd give me the stuff that was too crazy or old for anyone else to play, and they'd have me wrap my head around it. I couldn't imagine myself anywhere else though; it was a broad-based liberal arts program. I actually just held my 20-year reunion with my theater department this past week.

It was great seeing everyone again. Stephen Colbert was there for awhile; he graduated with me.